The whole process of invention, research, design and development is tough.

As James Dyson, the man whose entrepreneurial flair and design skills have made him one of the UK's most successful businessman, says: "It is a frustrating business, but you just have to battle on. The problems you are trying to solve are very difficult to solve and the whole establishment is against you - nobody likes change."
Dyson's fame and fortune has been built on the the business of cleaning up. After 10 years in business, Dyson Limited's product range remains limited to vacuum cleaners and washing machines, albeit with output running at millions of units per year (Fig. 1). Having 'reinvented' the vacuum cleaner, Dyson has now turned his attention to electric motors with the Dyson digital motor (see page 81).
Recently however, the company has been the subject of negative press in the UK after its decision to move manufacturing to Malaysia. James Dyson says: "Europe is almost the most expensive place in the world to manufacture anything. The lower labour cost in Malaysia is important but, having moved our manufacturing there, quality has gone up enormously."
Of the 1200 employees in the UK facility, about 350 are graduate or post-graduate engineers and scientists, all of whom benefit from James Dyson acting as their mentor. Qualities he looks for are: "Dogged determination, a questioning nature and an unconventional outlook."
This year it is possible that a robot vacuum cleaner will be launched by Dyson. This is not the first time that this type of cleaner has been available from Dyson, but the earlier DC06 robot model was priced significantly higher than a conventional vacuum cleaner.
Dyson has always made a heavy investment in research, design and development. For example, the environmentally-controlled pick-up chamber (Fig. 2) cost around E290000 and is used to test Dyson machines and competitor products. To develop the Dyson Digital Motor has cost around E11.7million over a seven-year period, and a team of 15 has been working full-time for several years to develop the robot cleaner. With such a busy research, design and development department, the company has an in-house intellectual property department. This handles annual patent renewals E1.1million every year, patent applications, design registrations and lawsuits against competitors who are seen to be infringing Dyson patents or registered designs.
Dyson holds strong views on the patent system: "I believe that patent renewal fees are an infringement of human rights. They are also, essentially, anti-competitive in that large companies can afford to pay but small companies or individuals cannot. I'm glad to say that the UK has halved the cost of renewals following our earlier campaign, but patent offices in other European countries have not; they do not want to loose their income or power."
So far Dyson has taken two cases to the European Court of Human Rights. Both have been rejected on the grounds that patent renewal fees are 'reasonable', even though the fees are not related to the patent owner's ability to pay. Nonetheless, Dyson does not shy away from patenting his company's inventions. "Patents are essential to encourage creativity and genuine innovation."

Design philosophy

Clearly there has to be something special about a company that can be this innovative in mature markets. The Dyson design process is therefore the same as the Dyson design philosophy. Engineering and design are not viewed as separate; the holistic approach means that there are no barriers between the disciplines of designing, engineering, model-making, testing and machining.
"The best and most creative products evolve as part of a design process, in which the technology on the inside informs the way the product looks on the outside," comments Dyson. "Product development is an empirical process, with testing and retesting, making one small change at a time, at its root."
Working from a design specification, initial ideas are sketched in notebooks. Surprisingly, corrugated cardboard then plays a major role. This material is cheap, easy to cut and glue, and the corrugations allow single-curvature shapes to be formed. In addition, the cardboard thickness is similar to that of components moulded in plastic, so realistic models and mechanisms can be created that can be handled, allowing design details to be resolved at an early stage. To keep a record of design evolution, models tend to be remade rather than modified.
After the cardboard models come 'breadboard' models that enable initial testing to be performed so that ergonomics and performance can be assessed. Breadboard models are constructed from a variety of materials that might include components from current products, plastics, metals and some rapid prototyped components built either in-house or by a bureau.
CAD is generally left until as late as possible because creating designs on-screen is not as fast as sketching and modelmaking. However, CAD models are essential if other computer-based tools such as CFD (computational fluid dynamics) are to be used. CAD also enables rapid prototyping to be employed. In the final stages of the rigorous design process, foam models are used for visual and ergonomic fine-tuning. Dyson says: "There is a world of difference between having a good idea and making it work successfully. Having bright ideas is crucial, of course, but it is just the start of the process of making a successful product. Being able to stay focused on a problem, and to stay focused for days, even years, is critical."
Once pre-production mouldings are available, assembled products are put through final mechanical, acoustic and pick-up tests and are taken away by Dyson employees for use in their own homes. That is where the inspiration for the Dyson vacuum cleaners and washing machines came from. In both cases Dyson had been frustrated by what he saw as the poor products available on the market and had realised that the innovative application of technology could make radical improvements to the products' performance and bring benefits to customers.
Dyson declines to say what other new products were in development, or what else in his home is frustrating him and will provide inspiration to innovate. n

* The Dyson digital motor. See page 81.